A 42-year-old man was convicted of capital murder Thursday for fatally stabbing another man and dumping his body in an Oak Cliff creekbed in 2011.

A Dallas County jury deliberated for about two hours before issuing its verdict against Albert Ayala Jr. He received an automatic life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Authorities say Ayala, his two brothers and a woman lured William Joseph Bailey to a Mesquite apartment complex before kidnapping, robbing and stabbing him to death on Aug. 26, 2011. Bailey’s bones were found several months later.

Danny and Adam Ayala, as well as Danny’s girlfriend, Angie Vasquez, are also charged with capital murder. Prosecutors said their trial dates have not been set.

During closing arguments Thursday, prosecutor Glen Fitzmartin replayed a recorded phone conversation in which Ayala said Bailey was “K-I-L-L-ed.”

“If I get caught, I’ll probably get the death penalty. I’ll tell you that much,” Ayala said in the recording.

Ayala said he was desperate and “needed the money.” He earned $75 selling scrap parts taken from Bailey’s car.

During Fitzmartin’s emotional closing argument, he showed jurors a slideshow of Bailey’s bones scattered in the creekbed where he was found. As he showed the last three photos — including one of Bailey’s skull — Fitzmartin played Ayala’s ominous voice from the recording saying, “K-I-L-L.”

Ayala’s attorneys, who called no witnesses during the three-day trial, argued that authorities used limited evidence and shoddy witness statements to connect their client to Bailey’s murder.

“We have assumptions and presumptions and no evidence from the Mesquite Police Department,” defense attorney Richard Franklin said during his closing arguments. “You can’t convict someone on assumptions.”

But Fitzmartin said that even though a few of the witnesses were “some of the most despicable people I’ve come across in my life,” their stories were corroborated by evidence.

One of the witnesses took police to each place where, she testified, the Ayala brothers and Vasquez had sold or dumped scraps from Bailey’s car. Cellphone records also placed the Ayalas’ phone and Bailey’s phone in the same locations that August night. Those records eventually led police to the creekbed where Bailey’s remains were found.

Photos of the Ayala brothers taken after Bailey’s death showed the dead man’s belongings in the background. He had been living out of his car when he was killed.

Fitzmartin told jurors that though Bailey was a drug user who had gotten mixed up in the wrong crowd, he didn’t deserve to die the way he did.

“Even those that skim across the bottom of us deserve better,” he said. “They deserve justice.”